Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.

The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.

The bare outlines of that order may have appeared in President Bush's Address to the Nation last night outlining his new course on Iraq:

Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq. We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.

As an avid Middle East watcher, I've been keeping my eye on something for awhile now. I'm waiting for a transition from Iraq to Iran...an excuse to attack Iran.

Yesterday I noticed that the president is shifting focus to Iran. Look for more signs. I believe that we will be poking at Iran to provoke them, but I don't see that happening for about six months or more. Ultimately it will look like we had no choice but to respond.

The president cannot declare war against Iran, and he has no public support to do so. However, if we escalate a situation to war, then the country has no choice.

The interesting thing is that the Dems have spent the last 4 years complaining that the President should be focusing on Iran instead of Iraq. Now it looks like he may be doing it, and true to form, the Dems are now attacking him for doing that.

This all reminds me of some of the things Nixon did in advance of pulling US forces out of Vietnam. Nixon waged an undeclared war by invading Cambodia, the result of which was the elimination of the Southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail as an effective staging area. This bought the US time to pull forces out (and build up South Vietnam's forces) as part of his "Vietnamization" plan.

The question now is whether the Dems will do to Bush what they did to Ford in 1975: completely tie his hands and prevent him from doing what is necessary to support the Iraqi government once US forces are withdrawn ...

Of course the president could veto any such resolution, only to be over-ridden by a two thirds majority.

The problem is that the additional money has to come from somewhere. The President's ability to move funding around within DoD (and from elsewhere) to pay for things is pretty limited.

All the Dems have to do is refuse to put up the $$$. What does the President do ... play chicken with the Dems and veto the entire DoD appropriations bill unless it contains funding? Or maybe ALL of the appropriations bills? It's a possibility, but the 1995 experience with shutting down the government seems a good indicator of which side public opinion will be driven (or, rather, stampeded, courtesy of our friends in the MSM) towards on the matter.

We'll roll up their orgs throughout the mid-east...viciously and covertly. We'll threaten and embarass them. We'll cruise the Straits of Hormuz with all fire control radars hitting every military installation. We'll harass all military flights and naval sorties.

We'll even CORSS the borders for limited bombing/engagement of the Iranian SpecOps that are supporting the insurgency. We'll tighten the financial noose as well. We'll do everything short of full-scale invasion in an attempt to provoke them, and we'll succeed.

Then we'll have the political cover to bring hell to their very doorstep.

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